Seven Lives… By Goodness Lanre Ayoola

so this is how the poetry goes
the first and the last poetry pieces
that fell upon seven moons…

the seven moons in my belly…

so this is how the poetry goes
once upon a pot of soup
of laughing vegetables and enchantment of fried melon…

they say mother cooked a pot of soup
a soup of seven lives…

so i ate the soup of seven lives
for seven times seven times until the time was seven
and i felt full and filled with seven pride…

with seven lives and seven pride
i walked over seven friends with seven fire
and i boast them of my seven phoenixes…

so i borrowed seven gourds of palm oil
and took from their lips seven baths
what is fire to a soul of seven lives?
and if i burn to the teeth of ashes…i shall rise…
seven lives…

but the soup of seven lives grew wild
and played restless strings on my intestines…

i visited nature and defecated seven lives
into the ears of a buried cocoyam
under the strong eye of the sun god…

i burned…

and as i taught my heels of the number of my buttocks
i knew from the gossips of curious winds
in seven lives lie seven lies
one life is one true truth…

Goodness Lanre Ayoola (b. 1989) hails from Osun State, Nigeria. Some of his poems are featured in various online literary outlets. His poem ‘sound of a needle-drop’ won the Peregrine Reads Patriot For Change Creativity Contest, 2015. He has a B.A (ED) in English and an NCE in English and Yoruba languages.

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